{"id":649,"date":"2016-09-05T09:28:08","date_gmt":"2016-09-05T13:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/?p=649"},"modified":"2016-09-05T09:31:07","modified_gmt":"2016-09-05T13:31:07","slug":"chicago-bears-sign-veteran-guard-josh-sitton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2016\/09\/05\/chicago-bears-sign-veteran-guard-josh-sitton\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Bears Sign Veteran Guard Josh Sitton"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former<strong> Green Bay Packers<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>All-Pro<\/strong> guard\u00a0<strong>Josh Sitton<\/strong>, quickly found a new home. He stays within the\u00a0<strong>NFC North\u00a0<\/strong>with the\u00a0<strong>Chicago Bears <\/strong>after being released by the Packers.<\/p>\n<h2>Chicago Bears Sign Veteran Guard Josh Sitton<\/h2>\n<p>The Bears and Sitton agreed to a three-year deal worth $21.75 million with $10 million in guarantees, according to<strong> ESPN Insider Adam Schefter.<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Josh Sitton signing a 3-year, $21.75 million deal that includes $10M guaranteed with the Chicago Bears, per source.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AdamSchefter\/status\/772628288653107200\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 5, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Sitton, 30, was drafted out of <strong>UCF\u00a0<\/strong>by the Green Bay Packers in the fourth round of the\u00a0<strong>2008 NFL Draft.\u00a0<\/strong>In eight seasons with the Packers, Sitton made three\u00a0<strong>Pro Bowls<\/strong> (2012, 2014, 2015), as well as starting 121 games, including 64-straight games. The Pro Bowler was also a second team All-Pro in each of his final three years in Green Bay, and a member of the Packers team that won\u00a0<strong>Super Bowl XLV.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Packers organization released a statement in regards to Josh Sitton after they were unable to trade him.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<em>We want to thank Josh for his contributions during his time in Green Bay. He has been an important part of the success we have enjoyed on the field,&#8221;\u00a0<\/em>Packers general manager\u00a0<strong>Ted Thompson\u00a0<\/strong> said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<em>While these decisions are never easy, this was done with a focus on what is best for the team and the growth of the offensive line. We wish Josh and his wife, Kristen, all the best in the future.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>With the three-time Pro Bowler now joining the Chicago Bears, they&#8217;ll have to shake up their offensive line. The Bears rookie\u00a0<strong>Cody Whitehair\u00a0<\/strong>has started the entire preseason at left guard, and will most likely backup at the center position which he has practiced at.\u00a0<strong>Ted Larson\u00a0<\/strong>is the presumed starting center heading into the 2016\u00a0<strong>NFL\u00a0<\/strong>season after Chicago lost\u00a0<strong>Hroniss Grasu\u00a0<\/strong>to a season-ending ACL tear.<\/p>\n<h2>Bears Extend Kyle Long, Release Robbie Gould<\/h2>\n<p>In other Bears&#8217; moves, they agreed to a $40 million extension with right guard\u00a0<strong>Kyle Long. <\/strong>The deal\u00a0includes $30 million in guaranteed money, the most for an NFL guard. Long is hoping to be ready for the\u00a0<strong>Houston Texans\u00a0<\/strong>in week one\u00a0as he deals with a shoulder injury.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, the Bears announced that they have released their longtime kicker,\u00a0<strong>Robbie Gould.\u00a0<\/strong>The veteran kicker played his entire eleven-year career with Chicago, making 276 field goals, which is a 85.4 percent rate. The Bears signed former\u00a0<strong>New Orleans Saints\u00a0<\/strong>kicker,\u00a0<strong>Connor Barth<\/strong>, who was released by the Saints on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Main image credit:<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/504389398\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.666667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/504389398?et=-0tmjd3mS65iGqAKo5tIPQ&amp;viewMoreLink=on&amp;sig=UmCC1wh-QRGbJ62m5rfewYTCXndm_Hx6Rs8oXIcTiSo=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Green Bay Packers\u00a0All-Pro guard\u00a0Josh Sitton, quickly found a new home. He stays within the\u00a0NFC North\u00a0with the\u00a0Chicago Bears after being released by the Packers. Chicago Bears Sign Veteran Guard Josh Sitton The Bears and Sitton agreed to a three-year deal worth $21.75 million with $10 million in guarantees, according to ESPN Insider Adam Schefter. Josh [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1303,"featured_media":652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,36],"tags":[42,44,285],"class_list":["post-649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bears","category-nfl-news","tag-chicago-bears","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-josh-sitton"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}